Ad Conference registration deadline is Thursday

We know, we know. You told yourself you would sign up for the upcoming Old Dominion Advertising Conference later.

Guess what? Now is later.

The conference will be held April 25-26 at The Cavalier in Virginia Beach. An agenda and more information about the conference can be found here. Deadline to register for both the conference and the hotel is Thursday, March 27.

Featured sessions at the Ad Conference include “Selling by Research,” led by Bill O’Donovan, publisher of The Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg. Tina Gill, of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, will lead a motivational session. Scott Bateman, VPA’s new media consultant, will lead a session on new-media advertising opportunities.

Attendees will have a chance to go “Out of the Box” with their advertising campaign presentations (see story below).

There also will be a Friday night dinner party on the hotel’s Boardwalk. The conference climaxes with the annual Advertising Contest Awards Banquet.

For more conference and e-mail registration information, contact Kim Woodward at (804) 521-7574. An agenda and registration form also can be found on the VPA Web site.

Get in ‘Out of the Box’ at the Ad Conference

Positions are still available to participate in the “Out of the Box” presentation during the Ad Conference in Virginia Beach.

The April 26 session allows teams of presenters to draft a marketing idea and present it to a group of business “experts.” These experts will score each presentation, and the winners will receive prizes.

The VPA Advertising Committee encourages sales representatives and graphic designers to team up to create what they feel will be a dynamic, deal-closing presentation guaranteed to make advertisers want to sign up right away. It may focus on any advertising promotion the newspaper can offer — special sections, unique ad deals or marketing plans.

Each team will have just five minutes to present its campaign.

Eleven presentation spots are available on a first-come-first-served basis. To secure a spot, contact Kim Woodward at (804) 521-7574.

Put power to work for your reporting April 3

The Virginia Newspaper Academy will present “Power Reporting” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 3 at VPA Headquarters in Glen Allen.

Led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman, this session is practical training for reporters and editors, focusing on daily and deadline reporting, not long-term projects. The course will include public records and using the Web and Excel to check facts on deadline. Background people, companies and places, development of story ideas and preparation for interviews also will be discussed.

The goal is to increase skills in integrating documents and computer-assisted reporting with the daily responsibilities of reporting and editing. Participants will leave with 100 ideas and a realistic sense of how to get at them.

Cost for the all-day session is $70 for VPA members and $100 for nonmembers. Lunch is included.

To register by e-mail for this session, contact Kim Woodward. You also may call her at (804) 521-7574.

Improve your narrative writing at a VNA session April 10

“Narrative Now,” a session on the finer points of writing narrative news stories, will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 10 at VPA Headquarters in Glen Allen. The session is part of the Virginia Newspaper Academy’s training calendar.

The session will be led by Maria Carrillo, managing editor of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. Its purpose is to help writers become great storytellers instead of just reporting the facts.

Cost for the all-day session is $70 for members, $100 for nonmembers. To register, send an e-mail to Kim Woodward or call (804) 521-7574.

Sign up for Newspaper Next 2.0 session and get a discount

The Virginia Press Association and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Mass Communications join the American Press Institute in presenting a daylong seminar on the report, “Newspaper Next 2.0: Making the Leap Beyond Newspaper Companies.” It will be held April 11 at VCU’s Stuart C. Siegel Center in downtown Richmond. For seminar and registration information, please click here.

Attendees whose newspapers are current members of the Virginia Press Association are eligible for a 10-percent tuition discount for the seminar. To receive this discount, attendees need to type “VPA” in the box labeled “Promotional Code” near the end of the online registration form.

Discounts are available only at the time of online registration and payment, and are not available retroactively. Tuition is non-refundable.

Enhance photojournalism skills at May 1 VNA session

The Virginia Newspaper Academy will present “Compelling Photojournalism: Reporting & Editing” from 10 am. to 4 p.m. May 1 at VPA Headquarters in Glen Allen.

Photojournalists are a critical part of the newsgathering team. Develop your reporting, researching and editing skills so you can produce compelling photographic coverage and publish your work in innovative ways. You’ll learn how to improve your photographic storytelling; how to introduce audio reporting to your multimedia tool belt; how to develop your ability to spot visual potential in news coverage; and how to find authentic documentary stories and creatively publish them in print and online

Kenny Irby, visual journalism group leader and diversity director for The Poynter Institute, will lead the session.

Cost for the all-day session is $70 for members, $100 for nonmembers. To register, send an e-mail to Kim Woodward or call (804) 521-7574.

Virginia Writers Workshop is coming in May

Remember May 15 and 16 on your calendars. That’s when the annual Virginia Writers’ Workshop and Critique-a-Thon will be held at VPA Headquarters in Glen Allen.

This year’s keynote presenter is Ted Anthony, a Pittsburgh-based national writer for The Associated Press. Anthony will lead three mini-workshops May 16 focusing on the theme, “The Multimedia Litmus Test: Changing the Storytelling Process from Within and Choosing the Best Tools for the Job.”

On Thursday, May 15, Kate Long will lead a seminar on injecting “new life” into storytelling practices. Long is a writing coach based in Charleston, W.Va.

The Critique-a-Thon runs all day May 16. Participants will meet with news professionals from across Virginia for tips to make their writing better. Critique sessions are by appointment only; clips must be e-mailed to Kim Woodward by May 1 or the appointment will be cancelled.

For registration information for both the workshop and the Critique-A-Thon, contact Kim Woodward at (804) 521-7574.

Bob Davis headlines VPA Classified Conference June 11

The VPA Classified Conference will be held June 11 at VPA Headquarters in Glen Allen.

The keynote presenter for the conference is Bob Davis, founder and president of Robert C. Davis & Associates, a Georgia-based training and consulting company. Davis will lead a training session on outbound calling that will cover attitude, prospecting, greeting, discovery, objections and solutions.

Also on the program, Nancy Summers, a classified trainer for Media General Inc., will go over the “Changing Environment of the Classified Call Center.”

The conference will begin with registration and continental breakfast at 9 a.m. Programming will conclude at 4 p.m.

Cost to attend the conference is $15 for members of the Statewide Classifieds and 2x2 Display Advertising networks, and $70 for non-members.

For more information, contact Janet Madison at (804) 521-7571.

Media General picks up S.C. newspaper

From Editor & Publisher

Media General Inc. has agreed to purchase The Messenger in Hartsville, S.C., from Osteen Publishing Co.

Terms of the deal, brokered by Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, were not disclosed.

The Messenger publishes twice a week and has a paid circulation of 6,000. It also distributes a weekly non-subscriber publication, Pulse, and operates two Web sites. It will become part of the Media General's Carolina Publishing Group.

"Since 1893, the Messenger has a 115-year old history of in-depth local news coverage, exceptional service to its readers and advertisers and uncompromising community support in Hartsville, it's surrounding communities and Darlington County," Mark Laskowski, regional publisher of Carolina Publishing Group, said in a statement.

Richmond-based Media General publishes the Richmond Times-Dispatch and 28 other daily and non-daily newspapers in Virginia. It also owns The Tampa Tribune and The Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal.

The Osteen family purchased the Messenger in 1995 from Joe Wiggins.

Send your rate cards

Virginia Press Services Inc. once again is collecting rate cards from VPA members.

Hard copies of the cards should be mailed to Virginia Press Services, ATTN: Diana Shaban, 11529 Nuckols Road, Glen Allen, VA 23059. Electronic versions can be sent via e-mail.

VPS uses the cards to help market Virginia newspapers to advertising clients. Therefore, the most up-to-date information is vital.